SHANGHAI: Tenth-seeded and former Chennai Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia moved into the second round of the Shanghai Masters on Monday with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Lukasz Kubot of Poland.
Cilic served eight aces and broke Kubot four times to wrap up the win in 1 hour, 33 minutes.
American Sam Querrey also advanced with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Chinese wild-card entry Li Zhe.
The 22nd-ranked Querrey jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead in the first set, then won the final five games of the second to close out the match in just 59 minutes.
Querrey served 11 aces and converted five of his 10 break points.
”I thought I served great,” Querrey said. ”I thought I returned well, and I took advantage of the break points. That was the key.”
Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria beat Pablo Andujar of Spain 7-5, 6-3 to set up a meeting with second-seeded Novak Djokovic in the next round.
Djokovic, who is coming off his third title at the China Open in Beijing, and the other seven top-seeded players, including Roger Federer, have byes in the first round.
Dimitrov earned the only two breaks of the match, including in the fourth game of the second set to take a decisive lead.
Also Monday, Tommy Robredo of Spain defeated qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr. of Russia 7-6 (4), 6-4; Benoit Paire of France ousted qualifier Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-6 (2), 6-4; and ninth-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain lost to 34-year-old Tommy Haas of Germany 4-6, 7-6 (4) 6-2.
American player Serena Williams rose to the No.3 spot in the WTA rankings Monday, dropping Agnieszka Radwanska down a place.
Poland’s Radwanska lost the third spot after failing to defend her China Open last week with a quarterfinal loss to Li Na as her ranking points from last year’s victory expired.
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who won the China Open Sunday by defeating Russia’s Maria Sharapova, retained the first place in the rankings, while Sharapova stays second.
Li climbed one place to seventh after a semifinal loss to Sharapova in front of her home crowd, dropping Italy’s Sara Errani to eighth.
The men’s rankings remain largely unchanged, with Federer as No.1 ahead of Djokovic and Britain’s Andy Murray. (Agencies)